A variety of putting greens for golfers are known. These putting greens may be portable, as, for example, the greens often found in homes or offices, or these putting greens may be stationary or permanently fixed to an area, such as the greens found in amusement parks or game rooms. Regardless of whether these prior art putting greens are portable or stationary, they basically are similar in their structure and mode of operation. For example, the existing portable and stationary greens have stationary slopes. Thus, the area or slope surrounding the ball cup always remains constant and may not be adjusted for slope variation. Furthermore, most existing portable and stationary greens usually require the golfer to retrieve putted balls from the cup or the area surrounding the cup. While some of the existing greens include a ball retrieval mechanism, these mechanisms usually involve systems which only remove the balls found in the cup, and not in the area surrounding the cup. In some cases, these ball-in-the-cup retrieval mechanisms do not operate to return the putted ball to the golfer, but instead, the balls are returned to a holding box as a theft preventative measure. Such holding boxes are typically found in amusement parks or game rooms.
Thus, while the existing portable and stationary putting greens offer the golfer the basic essentials--a green with a single slope and a cup for the ball--they are extremely limited in their structure and operation.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a putting green assembly having a manually or automatically adjustable slope.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a putting green assembly having a manual or automatic multiball return mechanism.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a putting green assembly in which the area of the green surrounding the cup need not have an upward slope to accommodate the depth of the cup.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a putting green assembly that may include an extension mat for chipping.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a putting green assembly which may be portable or stationary.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a putting green assembly which may be used indoors or outdoors.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a putting green assembly that is inexpensive to manufacture.